Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Community Post 4: Activist Blog

On her blog Wait...What?, Lindra Raftree writes to bridge the gap between community development and technology. She blogs about gender, race, ethics, and how technology is interwoven in these areas. Raftree's scope is not just limited to these topics in the United States; she often blogs about issues in other countries as well. It is interesting to see how these areas intersect and how technology can help improve them.

The posts on Wait...What? are lengthy and detailed; the reader can tell Raftree has done her research. By including quantified data in her posts, Raftree builds her credibility and therefore exhibits ethos. On her About page, she lists the various causes she is interested in and dedicated to. This adds to the pathos of the blog and its author. In her most recent post, Raftree writes about the "myths of girls' empowerment and mobile learning." The use of pathos in this example is when she lists the myths and adds a "Things to Consider" section underneath each one. This pulls the reader in to think critically about the myths about these topics and try to get rid of any preconceived notions.

Some other strategies Raftree uses to engage readers are:

Lists. Readers love a good list; however, she doesn't just quickly list items and move on to the next point. Each bullet point is a solid idea (often a full sentence) and Raftree discusses them at length.

Images. Without these, Raftree's posts would be enormous blocks of text. Breaking the text up with images makes her blog much more reader-friendly.